I found the Air Fare Checker at betterbidding.com today. It compares Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia prices (and one of the best uses for frames I’ve ever seen).
Today, Flight Club got a traffic spike. Hundreds on hundreds of people decided to start searching for blogs about cheap flights and low air fares. Why today? You tell me. Yes, we do have information about that (links to discounts on flights). Yes, we do have other cool travel resources (like the main site, Flight Club.)
I still ask you: Why today?
Don’t be the first to board. As a matter of fact, be one of the last. Flights rarely leave earlier than their scheduled departure time, and if they do there will be plenty of last call announcements. This way you can check out your seat and the people sitting around it; pass it by and see if there is a row empty, or a better seat. If there is, sit down as if it’s yours. If someone comes to claim it, then just play dumb, excuse yourself and move on. There is less likelihood that someone will claim it towards the end of boarding.
If you’re AirlineMeals.net then I’ve got an answer for you. AirlineMeals is an online community about nothing but airline food (members post photos, write reviews, and discuss changes in the field). The NY Times wrote an enjoyable piece about them, which ran in Sunday’s paper. I subscripe to their travel newsletter, and I found out and read about the story on Saturday.
U.S. Airways’ accidental deal this morning was a windfall for those interested in visiting small- to medium-sized town America … with fees and all, customers bought roundtrip tickets (some even first class) for $40.
Global Bag Tag has an idea for you: luggage tags with an id number on them you (or the person that finds your bags) can type in on the internet if they get lost. They’re clever enough to avoid promising their that tags will reduce the chance your luggage will get lost — no, they’re more in the market for increased peace of mind.
Find all the Flight Blog posts about finding cheap airfare here: Cheap Flights.
[We needed a little more fun around here]
See what happens when you sit down one person to do one thing and do it well? George, a travel journalist already, now spends most of his time scouring the internet to find the inner workings of the internet air fare world. And how good does this guy get? Well, beside the fares he finds ($170 RT from Portland Oregon to North Carolina? Absurd!) he also breaks it down. Check out his analysis of the latest United deal: comes down to bogus.
He also finds such gems as the link to Independence Air’s corporate fare site, which gives you 20% off their regular trip prices.
The New York Times covered a report that Consumer WebWatch did last month. It takes an in-depth look into the mechanisms of booking first-class flights online, and they come up with a couple problems. One was “fare jumping,” when the price quoted would jump hundreds of dollars when the customer clicked to check-out. The other was false labeling: certain sites came up with first class tickets for low-cost airlines which don’t have first-class seats.